Confession time

[clyst]

Re: Thats progress...?

Could n't agree more Mr spacewaist ! There was a time of acute satisfaction of making a cross chanel landfall using long hand navigation.One learnt the art of navigation a skill to be proud of!!! Now money governs the ability to navigate accurately. I wonder how many new sailors would truthfully have the ability to plot a course and make a reasonable landfall if the GPS/PLOTTER failed.I suspect not many.

 

[BrianJ]

suggest you contact Peter -Aird he can give you some advice...he he he
BrianJ

 

[claymore]

Oh yes and indeed I'm partial to a drop of the Jamesons - but going across there from fleetwood to IOM takes around a full tide cycle so I apart from say Langness, there wasn't much need to get too involved with tidal calculations. The tide runs up and then back down the Wyre so you'll struggle to go anywhere until HW or just after then its up the chuff right out of the bay.
Again from IOM to Ireland - through by Chicken or Point of Ayre - you can only go when you can go.
Crossing Strangford is just a ferry glide and I'd rather not cross it except on the ferry! But again you cant get in if the stream is coming out and vice versa - The tide through between Kintyre and Rathlin is strong so if you are going across then you do need to calculate carefully, but as a canoeist I tend not to be too scientific about it - if the tide is running hard from right to left - aim hard right and again vice versa. There are some fine big landmasses here to use as references so you can normally see when you are being tided away from your course.
I learned to sail dinghys at Arnside on the Kent estuary where the tide is really strong and again I taught at Knott End and Plas Menai so course made good is fairly well embedded in the muscle that keeps my ears apart.

regards
Claymore

 

[claymore]

Hang on

Its not exactly rocket science - plotting a course. I think you are rather underestimating the abilities of "new" sailors - what are we talking about here, laying a ruler on a chart and drawing along it then obtaining a bearing from the nearest compass rose. Come off it - if you can work out how to use a gps I dont think drawing lines on a bit of paper is going to be beyond you!

regards
Claymore

 

[claymore]

Yes ...Peter_Aird

He used to be a member here didn't he? Wonder what happened to him.......

regards
Claymore

 

[TheBoatman]

Re: Yes ...Peter_Aird

<<<<<<with shoulders hunched, wanders off into the deeper darker recesses of Kims ybw cyber world looking for a lost cookie.

With my previous life (name) in tatters, and thinking "will I ever be fully accepted in this forum again"?

"Will I ever be able to find that lost cookie which has somehow stolen my identity"?

With a single tear on my cheek, I carry on, contemplating the thought that some "nice" member maybe able to give me the Lat / Long of my lost cookie and armed with a hand held GPS / chart and 2B pencil I maybe able to locate it.

signed
TheBoatman (formally peter_aird)

 

[ccscott49]

Re: Yes ...Peter_Aird

Oh! Dangerous them 2Bs' attract The PPE! Favourite fodder 2Bs'

 

[ccscott49]

Re: Hang on

Totally agree with you, using tidal diamonds and a tide table to construct a tidal vector isn't rocket science either. But some people seem to think it is and charge you handsomely for the course to teach it! Pah!

 

[sailbadthesinner]

Re: Hang on

took me longer to get to grips with a gps.

Come on brain.get this over and i can go back to killing you with beer

 

[claymore]

Re: Yes ...Peter_Aird

Was it Noel Coward.." to lose one cookie is careless...."
I don't think you should get another until you learn to take more care of the one you've lost - Oh God.. would you look at the logic of that one!

regards
Claymore

 

[claymore]

Re: Hang on

Me too - and like everything there are keys on there gathering dust because we don't go there!

regards
Claymore

 

[ccscott49]

Re: Hang on

I would expect it of sailbad, but you a man of your learning, not to mention seniority! shockin' it is, shockin'

 

[claymore]

Re: Hang on

OK then on the humble Raystar 198 button 6 is the event button. There's enough going on on a boat without dialling up events.
Button 7 is for GoTo - thats what we have a steering wheel for so I'm not going to press that
Button 8 is MOB - well I'll be buggered if I'm having any of that business going on
Button 9 is ALM - I don't think so - I like to keep things calm and anyway the firefighters are all on strike...no lets not go there again.
So I press 1 cos it gives me a Position
2 cos it reads out Lat Long in Big print and the old eyes can see it
3 for a map because its quite pretty and 4 for a waypoint because I like them
and sometimes 5 if I can remember how to key in a route. I only do this when I'm feeling really organised and compliant with SOLAS so my log will have the weather forecast in it and the Big Red Ledger will show my route plan for the day - copied in a hand so free.
Hope that helps
Sugar puffs on a Rig - don't those big roughie toughie roustabouts make fun of you?

regards
Claymore

 

[MapisM]

Could be even worse...

I frequently cruise in areas with plenty of small islands, requiring frequent course changes to "slalom" between them.
Some of these routes I've saved in the chartplotter, and my autopilot can be instructed to automatically accept from the chartplotter also waypoint changes.
This way, I don't even have to push any button when a waypoint is reached.
I just continue playing cards and drinking beer with friends onboard, while the boat steers itself along the islands coasts.
Is that the ultimate stage of electronics addiction maybe?

OK, I still don't like those softwares which pretend to simulate cruising, maneuvering, etc.
That is probably the borderline of insanity: appreciating the virtual reality as much as the reality itself...

...with peace of mind of those raggies who are watching the America's cup on Virtual Spectator... ;-))

 

[BrianJ]

Re: Yes ...Peter_Aird

He went mad and they shot him.. propose a minutes silence at 2100 tonight. folowed by a party to celebrate.. oops I mean to remember him.
BrianJ
ps.. boatman U R invited

 

[NigeCh]

I\'ll fess up as well ....

Coming back from Arran last May and putting into Port St Mary in the dead of night in thick mist I used the Furuno GP 30 as a chartplotter for rounding Chicken Rock using the track out (via Calf Sound) and proximity waypoints plus the zoom facility.

I may be a pedantic old fart, but I'm not averse to using the tools at hand .... What PeterA has demonstrated is that a GPS screen can be turned into a quasi chart plotter to good effect.

 

[claymore]

Offside Ref ....

Under the articles of memorandum - 17.3(a-f) (Burgees, Conduct and Identification)
it clearly states, and I quote..." Confessions may be enacted by a member ONLY after said member has undergone a process of reinvention which must include a change of identifty and loss of cookies" It goes on to state that only the main Kimittee can ratify such changes.
So who are you going to become ?

regards
Claymore

 

[claymore]

I think you are close

I wondered once about setting the route from Fleetwood to Croabh Haven, switching to autopilot as we were down the channel then getting a friend to pick me up in his rib. I would then go ashore and get in the car and drive round to meet the boat as she wandered in towards the Marina - I'd prefer to berth her myself -
This would avoid all that tedious delivery sailing and I could get on with the real business of cruising.

regards
Claymore

 

[Spacewaist]

A couple of web cams...

... and a mobile phone and you could even enjoy the spectacle from your armchair in front of the fire!

Dunno how you'd feel at watching a McBrayne ferry approaching from dead down camera, but could be a surreal experience.

LOOK OUT!!! Behind y.......! Five more hoots and you're history!

 

[claymore]

Re: A couple of web cams...

Now we are making progress - I wonder if we could use the mobile phone and blue herring wireless technology to send a message to the autopilot to make a temporary change of course in these circumstances?

regards
Claymore